LIVING IN THE LIGHT
Going, Going, Gone?
Spirituality for the Lay Person
Dr. Patricia Cooney Hathaway
O
ne of the documents that should have been considered a “must read”
for any bishop, priest or lay participant in preparation for the October
Synod, “Young People, the Faith and Vocational Discernment,” is the study
undertaken by Saint Mary’s Press of Minnesota, in collaboration with the Cen-
ter for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA), entitled, “Going, Going,
Gone: The Dynamics of Disaffiliation in Young Catholics.” The research of
this study focused on those youth and young adults, ages thirteen to twenty-five,
that is, the NONES, as to why they no longer consider themselves Catholic.
When asked at what age they no longer
identified themselves as Catholic, seventy-
four percent of the sample said between the
ages of ten and twenty, with the median age
being thirteen years old. Of those who have
left, thirty-five percent no longer belong to
any religion, while forty-six percent have
joined other religions. An additional four-
teen percent report being atheists or agnos-
tics. From their sample the authors estimat-
ed that approximately 12.8 percent of U.S.
young adults between the ages of eighteen
and twenty-five are former Catholics, and
that approximately 6.8 percent of U.S. teens
between the ages of fifteen and seventeen
are former Catholics.
The study points out that there is no sin-
gle reason why many young people raised
as Catholics no longer identify with the
Church. Further, there is no one profile that
adequately describes those who have left
the Church. Yet, in listening to their stories,
the authors identified three categories: The
Injured, The Drifter, and The Dissenter.
THE INJURED
One dynamic that led to disaffiliation is
negative experiences associated with faith
and religious practice, both familial and
ecclesial. In particular, disruptions in fam-
ily life negatively impacted a young per-
son’s faith. The interviewees shared stories
of divorce, long-term illness, death of family
members, frequent moving and other family
issues that caused disruptions in their lives
and affected their faith.
“The original root cause would have been
watching my whole mother’s family on
my mother’s side, pray for my grandpa’s
lung cancer. And everyone is praying for
him, probably over 150 people. Person-
ally praying for him and still there was
nothing done to help him and that was
my first skepticism.”
THE DRIFTER
“So what? What difference does faith
make anyway?”
For some young people, the dynamics of
disaffiliation stem from uncertain faith and
lack of engagement with a faith community.
The authors state connection between reli-
gious belief and practice slowly fades until
at some point these young people question
why they are affiliated in the first place.
“It was not until I went to college that I
was officially out of the Catholic Church.
I was no longer forced to be Catholic.
When this finally happened, I was re-
lieved and happy, really now I was able
to make my own decisions. I have never
gone back to church.”
THE DISSENTERS
These are young people who exhibit a
more active resistance to or rejection of the
Church.
They express disagreement with Church
teaching on many social issues, particu-
larly same-sex marriage, abortion, and birth
control, though the abortion issue seems
nuanced in that there is often opposition
to abortion, but support for an individual’s
right to choose it as an option.
“The religious teachers at my Catholic
high school could not provide sufficient
evidence or answers to fundamental
questions about the beliefs of the Catho-
lic Church and faith, beginning with de-
finitive proof of the existence of an om-
niscient, benevolent God….Additionally,
questions of Catholic social teaching were
not justified (e.g., opposition to gay mar-
riage, antiquated views on homosexuality
and birth control, opposition to women in
positions of power.)”
The authors generated several questions
which are important for those involved in
pastoral ministry to consider. Here are a few:
•
Can we articulate a compelling and
convincing rationale for why religious
affiliation and practice matters?
•
Can we provide competent religious
formation that addresses the important
issues and questions that young Catho-
lics are thinking about at earlier ages?
• What is the grace that the disaffiliated
are bestowing on the Church? What
is the Holy Spirit telling the Church
through the life stories of those who
are disaffiliated?
To end this article on a note of hope, when
one teenager was asked if he would ever re-
turn to the Catholic Church, he responded,
“I wouldn’t rule out someday returning to
the Catholic Church, if somebody made a
really convincing argument to me.”
Dr. Patricia Cooney Hathaway is professor of spir-
ituality and systematic theology at Sacred Heart.
shms.edu
33